Antonin Scalia's death calls Supreme Court gun rights stance into question

[SecularMotion]

When the supreme court ruled in 2008 that the second amendment gives Americans an individual right to own a firearm, it was justice Antonin Scalia who wrote the historic and controversial majority opinion. The decision in that District of Columbia v Heller case, which struck down a local handgun ban, was 5-4.

It was also Scalia who last month joined in justice Clarence Thomas’s strongly worded dissent when the supreme court chose not to reconsider a seventh circuit court of appeals decision that an Illinois city’s assault weapon ban was constitutional.

“If a broad ban on firearms can be upheld based on conjecture that the public might feel safer (while being no safer at all), then the Second Amendment guarantees nothing,” the dissent argued.

Scalia’s sudden death at age 79 throws the supreme court’s divided stance on the second amendment into question.

http://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/feb/13/anotnin-scalia-justice-dead-supreme-court-gun-rights

[ebayfool]

1. So with him gone, some of these decisions would stand at 4-4 ...

so what happens then?

[madville]

2. Possibly

But it will take years, possibly decades, for another case to get to SCOTUS and possibly overturn the existing precedent. The SCOTUS likes to leave recent decisions alone though, and things like Heller in 2008 are recent decisions in SCOTUS years.

[ebayfool]

3. So no appointment pretty much freezes most any cases going forward? n/t

[madville]

4. Not really

The SCOTUS just won't take up cases they know will split, that will leave the decision more in the hands of the lower courts.

As far as current cases, the gun industry and owners are sitting pretty good at the moment with existing precedent.

[ebayfool]

5. TY - trying to wrap my head around this and you helped! n/t